


The Nutcracker

by blueprincessbee



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Nutcracker Fusion, Christmas, Christmas With Family, Fluff, Gen, Inspired by the Nutcracker, Multi, References to The Nutcracker, pond family christmas, yes i made the sugar plum fairy a lesbian what about it, zine fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28269408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueprincessbee/pseuds/blueprincessbee
Summary: The Ponds just want a peaceful Christmas together, but one magical doll has other ideas... | My piece for Wholesome Who's festive zine.
Relationships: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Eleventh Doctor/River Song, The Doctor/River Song
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	The Nutcracker

Rory put their favourite Christmas album in the CD player and let it play in the background as he and Amy lugged their boxes of decorations out of storage and into the lounge, where the bare tree stood in the corner. They never meant to leave the decorating until Christmas Eve but travelling with the Doctor, even though they didn’t do it as much as they used to, skewed their sense of time.

Amy wrapped her arms around him from behind as he stood up from his box. “Ready for Christmas, Mr Pond?”

Rory smiled and hummed in response as Amy rested her chin on his shoulder.

There was a knock on the door.

Amy sighed. “Finally,” she said, going to answer the door. “I don’t understand how he has a time machine and still manages to be late.”

The Doctor and River were supposed to have arrived two hours ago, and they all knew that if the Doctor wasn’t too proud to let River pilot the TARDIS, they would’ve arrived on time.

The Doctor appeared in the doorway of the lounge. “Rory the roman!” He rushed over to Rory and pulled him into a hug.

River and Amy followed him, River telling Amy about how the Doctor had accidentally taken them to the year 2150 and how they got involved in thwarting some evil plan.

“Hello, Dad,” River said, also hugging Rory.

“Maybe we should force him to let you drive next time,” he said.

She laughed. “Good luck with that.”

The Doctor, being the thousand-year-old child that he is, had already begun rummaging through the boxes of decorations. His eyes were drawn to a red nutcracker doll, which he pulled out to look at.

“We found that at a charity shop,” Amy said, noticing him admiring it.

“Yeah, it had a bit of an odd story, actually,” Rory added.

That got the Doctor’s attention.

He looked up at them. “Oh yeah?”

“One of the shop workers told us that the person who donated it had found it just lying in the road,” Rory explained.

“But there isn’t a single scratch on it,” River said, going over to the Doctor to get a closer look at the doll. “It’s in perfect condition.”

“Exactly,” Amy said. “That’s what’s odd about it.”  
“Maybe it just hadn’t been there very long,” River suggested.

“But who leaves something like this in the middle of the road?” Rory said. “It must have rolled from somewhere.”

The Doctor was frowning at the doll and turning it in his hands, inspecting it. “It’s probably just one of those weird things that happens every so often, you know?” But…” He took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and scanned the doll with it. “Nope. It’s wood. The sonic doesn’t do wood.”

River rolled her eyes. She was always reminding him that he needed to add a wood setting.

“Could it be some kind of alien wood?” Amy asked.

“It could be, but I can’t tell.” He put the sonic back in his pocket. “It’s probably nothing.”

“So you thought this might be alien,” River said, turning to her parents, “but you brought it home anyway?”

“It’s a nutcracker,” Rory said, “what’s the worst it could do? Come to life and battle with mice like in the ballet?”

River laughed. “Be careful, Dad. You should know better than to say things like that in the Doctor’s presence.”

The Doctor pouted and River shouldered him playfully.

“Shall we get on with decorating this tree, then?” Amy asked.

The Doctor put the nutcracker down next to the tree and picked up the tangled ball of fairy lights. “The sonic can do this, though,” he said, getting it back out of his pocket and pointing it at the lights. They quickly untangled themselves and fell like a cascade from his hand, until he was holding only the plug end.

“Wow,” Amy said, impressed, as the Doctor plugged the lights in and River helped him wind them around the tree. “How does it do that?”

“Well, it’s all about vibrating it at just the right frequency that it all moves outwards. It uses—“

“Okay, never mind. Sciency stuff.”

They began to place the red and gold baubles on the tree, with Amy making sure the others were doing it right.

“Make sure you don’t put too much of one colour in one place,” she told them. “And make sure you put them all the way around the tree.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rory joked.

Amy hit him lightly and placed the bauble in her hand on the tree.

They worked their way through the baubles, singing along to the music playing from the CD player.

River was the first to notice when the nutcracker started glowing.

“Doctor,” she said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Look at that.”

He didn’t look up from his bauble, which he was trying to position at just the right angle for maximum sparkle. “One moment, dear.”

Amy and Rory looked to see what River was talking about.

“Woah,” Amy said. “It’s definitely not supposed to be doing that.”

That got the Doctor’s attention and he turned to look where River was indicating, leaving his bauble on the tree.

“Oh, hello,” he said to the nutcracker, kneeling down to get a closer look at it. “What are you, then?”

River joined him on the floor. “Looks like it could be a beacon of some kind.”

“A beacon?” Rory repeated.

“As in, it could be bringing something here?” Amy asked.

River looked back at them and grimaced. “Maybe.”

“It could just be transmitting something,” the Doctor said. He pulled out his sonic and tried scanning the nutcracker again, but it still yielded nothing.

The air around them began to shimmer.

“Maybe we should step back,” River suggested, standing up and pulling the Doctor back with her.

The glow of the nutcracker increased to an almost blinding intensity. Rory shielded his eyes with his arm while the other three squinted at the area around the nutcracker.

After a few seconds, three figures appeared next to the nutcracker and the light died away. The people were dressed almost exactly like the nutcracker. Two of them were armed with rifles, while the other—clearly the leader—was armed with a sword. The leader spotted them and made to walk in their direction, but the Doctor stopped him.

“Don’t come any closer,” he warned. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“I am Prince Hans-Peter of the Dolls,” the leader said, “first in line to the throne of the Land of Sweets. This is my personal army.”  
“Personal army?” Amy repeated, peering at the two people stood either side of the Prince, rifles resting on their shoulders. “Kind of small for a personal army, isn’t it?”

“We are not a violent people,” the Prince said, still wisely keeping his distance. “We were not prepared for war. But the Mouse People want our beautiful kingdom for themselves. It is they who attack us.”

“And why did you bring your war here?” the Doctor asked. He still had a dangerous look in his eyes. “Earth is not your battleground.”

“I completely understand,” the Prince said. “And I am sorry. We would not come here if there were any other way. You see, the Mouse People are nothing without their king, and coming here means that he is forced to bring only a few of his army.”

As he spoke, the air began to shimmer again.

The Prince gasped. “Here they come.”

“Get back!” the Doctor shouted and almost pushed Amy and Rory to the other side of the door, with River close behind him.

Seven figures materialised where they had just been standing. They were anthropomorphic mice dressed in soldier’s uniforms. Six of them were about a foot shorter than average human height while the one with a crown atop its head was a few feet taller. The soldier mice were armed with nothing but their sharp teeth and claws but the King was wielding a sword similar to the Prince’s.

The Mouse King quickly spotted the Prince and his tiny army and, although he didn’t speak any intelligible words, it was clear he was ordering his own army to attack. The Prince’s soldiers reacted quickly, taking their positions either side of the Prince and aiming their rifles.

“No guns!” the Doctor shouted, doing something with his sonic. The soldiers suddenly found that their rifles didn’t shoot.

“You’ve left them defenceless!” River snapped at him. The soldiers tried to attract their leader’s attention, but their Prince was already engaged in a sword fight with the Mouse King.

The mice people were advancing quickly on the soldiers, as they desperately tried to fight them off with only their bayonets. The Prince, who seemed to be on the verge of overcoming the Mouse King, noticed the situation the two soldiers were in and immediately came to their aid. The Mouse King quickly gained the edge on the Prince as the latter attempted to fight off all seven mice at once.

“Doctor, help them!” River shouted over the noise of swords clashing, soldiers shouting, and mice squeaking. “You got them into this mess, get them out!”

“How did I get them into this mess?” the Doctor shouted, pointing at himself incredulously. “It was Amy and Rory who brought the nutcracker here.”

Rory leaned closer to them. “Hey! This isn’t our fault. If we hadn’t brought it home they would just be having this same battle in the charity shop instead.”

“Well, at least they would’ve had working guns,” River said pointedly.

“And more space,” Amy muttered behind them, wincing as the soldiers ducked and dodged around the sofa.

“Why don’t you do something, then?” the Doctor asked River. “Use your gun. You know I can’t stop you from using it, no matter how hard I try.”

“You like it when I use my gun,” River said, smirking at him as he stuttered in protest. “And anyway, I didn’t bring it.”

“You didn’t bring it? But you always have a gun on you!”

“No I don’t. Why would I bring a gun to celebrate Christmas with my parents?”

Amy was sick of hearing them argue while doing nothing to help. She remembered what the Prince said about the Mouse People being nothing without their king. She looked around the hall and her eyes fell on the jumble of shoes by the front door.

“If you want something doing,” she muttered to herself, grabbing a shoe. She pushed past the others and aimed it at the Mouse King.

The shoe found its target and he fell to the floor.

The battle stopped immediately. The mice people started squealing and ran over to their king, wasting no time in picking up his body between them and disappearing from the room.

Stunned, they all stared at the spot where the king had been, the soldiers and the Prince catching their breath.

River broke the silence. “Good throw,” she told Amy, who grinned and went to retrieve her shoe from the floor.

“You did it!” the Prince gasped. “You defeated the Mouse King! You saved us!”

“Well,” Amy said, bowing her head to the tiny army, “someone had to do something.” She looked pointedly at the Doctor, who crossed his arms and huffed.

The Prince looked to his soldiers. “Go back to the kingdom and tell the Queen she needs to come here immediately to thank these kind people.”

“She really doesn’t have to—“ Rory began but trailed off when both Amy and River shot him a look that said, “shut up”.

“If she wants to thank us, let her, Rory,” Amy said. “I think we deserve something for this mess, at least.”

The soldiers disappeared, leaving the Prince standing alone.

Having a battle squeezed into such little room had left the lounge looking rather bereft of Christmas cheer: the sofa was scratched and the boxes had been overturned, the decorations inside trampled into the floor. The music from the CD player still played in the background as the Doctor, River, Amy, and Rory all re-entered the lounge to inspect the damage close up.

Soon the air began to shimmer again and a woman so beautiful she could’ve been a goddess appeared in the room. She wore a long, pink dress that seemed to float magically around her and a tiara atop a perfect up-do.

“This is my sister,” the Prince said. “Queen Sugar Plum.”

The Queen took in the state of the room and sighed. “They made a mess, didn’t they? Here.” She waved a hand and the room righted itself.

“We’re honoured,” the Doctor said, “but shouldn’t you be home, celebrating with your people?”

“Nonsense. I had to come and thank you personally. Especially you, my dear.” She turned to Amy and smiled pleasantly. “I left my kingdom in the capable hands of my wife. She will organise the celebrations.”

River briefly wondered how capable the Queen’s own hands were.

“I think Christmas requires a little extra magic, don’t you agree?” The Queen waved her hand around the room again and this time the decorations changed.

The tree was packed with twinkling lights and red and gold ornaments that sparkled on their own. There was a star floating just over the top of the tree. The fireplace crackled with an open fire, and lush garlands were draped over the mantlepiece. The light in the room was warm and low and the air itself seemed to twinkle.

“Ooh, nice,” the Doctor said, admiring the room.

“Thank you again,” the Prince said to Amy.

He bowed his head and the Queen curtsied to Amy before they disappeared together.

There was a few moments of silence.

“Mulled wine?” Rory asked, and they all heartily agreed.

As Rory and Amy went into the kitchen to get the drinks, the Doctor and River settled onto the renewed sofa. River curled into the Doctor’s side, he put his arm around her and together they watched the twinkling of the Christmas tree.

“Merry Christmas, River.”

“Merry Christmas, Doctor.”

**Author's Note:**

> The zine is still available until the end of January 2021, with the money going to Mind and Amnesty International. You can find it here if you would like to check it out: https://twitter.com/wh0les0mewh0/status/1331311729641484288?s=20  
> Merry Christmas :)


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